The present invention broadly relates generally to an adjustable prosthetic anatomical device for adjusting the size and/or shape of an anatomic orifice or lumen. More particularly, the present invention relates to an adjustment assembly for an adjustable annuloplasty ring for repairing a valve such as a mitral valve in a human patient.
Heart valve disease is a condition in which one or more valves of the heart fail to function properly. Diseased heart valves may be categorized as either stenotic, wherein the valve does not open sufficiently to allow adequate forward flow of blood through the valve, or incompetent, wherein the valve does not close completely causing excessive backward flow of blood through the valve when the valve is closed.
By way of one specific example, the mitral valve is the inflow valve for the left side of the heart. Blood flows from the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, through the pulmonary veins, to the left atrium of the heart. After the left atrium fills with blood, the mitral valve allows blood to flow from the left atrium into the heart's main pumping chamber called the left ventricle. It then closes to keep blood from leaking back into the left atrium or lungs when the left ventricle contracts to push blood out to the body.
Valve disease relating to the mitral valve often involves secondary mitral regurgitation which is the backward flow of blood from the left ventricle to the left atrium resulting from imperfections in the mitral valve. One repair technique for treating regurgitation is called annuloplasty, in which the size and/or shape of the valve annulus is modified by securing a prosthetic adjustable annuloplasty ring to an interior wall of the heart around the valve annulus. The size and/or shape of the annuloplasty ring is adjusted in situ for maintaining coaptation to prevent reversed blood flow.
Examples of an adjustable annuloplasty ring are disclosed in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0066231, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The disclosed annuloplasty ring includes an adjustment assembly for expanding or contracting the size and/or shape of the ring and of the opening formed by the ring.